Society Organizes to Make a Case for Humans on Mars

By SANDRA BLAKESLEE

Published: August 18, 1998

BRIAN BARNWELL has a nose for historical events. In 1955, he attended the splashy opening of Disneyland in Anaheim, Calif. In 1969, he visited Florida to witness the launching of Apollo 11, which sent men to land on the Moon.

And, last week, Mr. Barnwell, a 52-year-old real estate appraiser from Santa Barbara, Calif., took his sons, 14-year-old Brendan and 10-year-old Sean, to Boulder, Colo., for another special moment in the chronicles of American culture -- the founding convention of the Mars Society, a group of people who fervently believe it possible to send humans to Mars with existing technology at an affordable cost if only the American people will get behind the idea.

''This is the first international conference of the Mars Society,'' Mr. Barnwell said, removing his floppy sun hat. ''If they make it to Mars in the next 20 years, I figure we had to be here.''

''We need to go to Mars,'' said Brendan Barnwell, who is going into the ninth grade. ''We need to see something completely new.''

At least 750 people from 40 countries agreed with the Barnwells. Each paid $180 to attend the four-day event -- it ended Sunday -- which gave them access to nearly 200 talks on Mars and a free ''Mars or Bust'' lapel button. They heard a folksy talk by the former astronaut John Young, technical discussions on terraforming Mars into an Earthlike planet and an update on NASA's plans for exploring Mars. Most important, perhaps, they all got to sign the founding declaration of the Mars Society, an 800-word manifesto that begins: ''The time has come for humanity to journey to Mars. We're ready.'' It ends: ''No nobler cause has ever been. We shall not rest until it succeeds.''

These Mars aficionados were from all walks of life -- business leaders, teachers, lawyers, investment bankers, farmers, students, scientists, truck drivers, bureaucrats, nurses, artists -- but most had something in common. They had read ''The Case for Mars,'' a book written by Robert Zubrin, the force behind the Mars Society.

In the way that many social revolutions are launched by a single person with a burning vision and desire to change the world, Mr. Zubrin is the Mars Society. In his opening speech to the convention, the 46-year-old aerospace engineer who runs his own company, Pioneer Astronautics, electrified the audience. ''We are a nation of pioneers!'' he declared, adding: ''We need a central overriding purpose for our lives. At this point in history, that focus can only be the human exploration and settlement of Mars.'' Later he said, ''You'd have to be made out of wood to not want to go to Mars.''

Mr. Zubrin is a longtime member of the Mars Underground, an informal network of scientists and engineers who have been meeting since 1981 to keep the dream of going to Mars alive and technically up to date. His passion was borne of frustration with the American space program, which he said has been batted around like a catnip toy among rival political interests and behemoth aerospace firms. The shuttle and space station, he said, have never made sense in that they go nowhere at enormous cost. But the coup de grace was the agency's pronouncement in 1990 that it would take $450 billion and 30 years to send humans to the red planet.

''They designed a Death Star,'' Dr. Zubrin said. ''Given their scenario, no way would we go to Mars.'' And so, Mr. Zubrin came up with an alternative plan, called Mars Direct, which would use existing technology to send four astronauts to Mars in a simple spacecraft called a ''tuna can.'' For their return, they would manufacture rocket fuel from Martian resources. Like successful explorers on Earth, they would travel light and live off the land. The price tag: $20 billion. The goal: colonize Mars quickly, within a decade, before politicians kill the program.

NASA listened and reduced its price tag for a Mars mission using some of Mr. Zubrin's ideas to $50 billion but did no more, Mr. Zubrin said. ''The Case for Mars'' was published in 1996, and Mr. Zubrin received more than 4,000 letters and E-mail messages from people who wanted to help make it happen. The same year, NASA scientists reported finding signs of life in a Martian meteorite (a claim still hotly disputed) and a year ago last month more than two and half million people logged on to a NASA Web site when a small robot landed on Mars and sent pictures back to Earth.

Thus encouraged, Mr. Zubrin decided to form the Mars Society. He invited all the people who had written to him in addition to regular members of the Mars Underground.

On Saturday, a steering committee met to chart Mars Society goals. ''We don't want another newsletter group,'' Mr. Zubrin said, referring to the Planetary Society and National Space Society which, he added, ''do good work but are not passionate about going to Mars.'' Rather, the Mars Society is an advocacy group formed to convince the American people that nothing stands in the way of going to Mars except lack of imagination and leadership. This means, he said, revamping the space station and shuttle program so astronauts actually have somewhere to go.

The next President will take office in 2001 ''with a clean sheet at the start of a new millennium'' Mr. Zubrin said. ''We have three years to lobby Congress to lay the groundwork for going to Mars.''

More immediately, Mr. Zubrin said that the Mars Society will emulate the tactics of the marine explorer Jacques Cousteau, who successfully raised money for private projects.

The first project will be a small scientific station at a NASA geology camp in the Arctic where scientists can simulate Martian conditions and test the technologies needed for a mission. The society will also try to piggyback its instruments -- perhaps balloons that fly across Mars to make an IMAX-like movie of the planet -- on future NASA spacecraft.

Dr. Carol Stoker, a research scientist and Mars expert at the NASA-Ames Center in Mountain View, Calif., and a member of the steering committee, said that the group should adopt tactics like chaining themselves to the White House.

''We could show up at events in Marvin the Martian suits,'' she said. ''We need to write letters, make phone calls. That sounds trivial but it works.''

Many nonscientists attending the conference say they believe that the only way to get to Mars is by mounting a private expedition. A private expedition, they say, is not as impossible as it sounds. Every day billions of dollars are wagered on sporting events and Wall Street develops clever new instruments for raising huge sums of money. Mars bonds were mentioned, as were a Mars lottery -- the winner would get to train for the first crew -- and Mars investment clubs.

A private company could sell the television rights, develop a marketable logo, like the Olympic rings, sell advertising space on rockets and astronaut clothing, and make lunch boxes and action figures. Maybe, it was suggested, Bill Gates would put up money if the expedition were named after his daughter.

The biggest problem, they said, is that space travel as practiced and portrayed is elitist, autocratic and mind-numbingly boring. It has to be turned into entertainment or the American public will never care. And, by the way, they said, why not claim Mars for the United States? If other countries object, they can try to kick the Americans off.

Such thinking is not mainstream, Dr. Zubrin said, but he welcomed all ideas from all newcomers to the Mars Society. Hubris and political correctness can duke it out. Dues are $50 a year. They meet again next summer in Boulder.

Photos: At least 750 people from 40 countries paid $180 to attend the four-day Mars Society convention, which featured nearly 200 talks on Mars, including one by Robert Zubrin, who wrote ''The Case for Mars.'' (Photographs by Brian Payne for The New York Times)